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My dd is 2.9 and wants to wear pants like her friend but when i take off her nappy she will hold her bladder for well over 3 hours then massive wee on the floor. She is then upset that her clothes are wet and comes to tell me staright away. (The same with poos) But she won't tell me before. She will sit on the potty or loo and try to squeeze something out but says it doesn't work. When ever i put a nappy back on she wees straight away. Do i keep trying, am worried she'll end up with bladder infection from constantly holding it in.

My DD is nearly 2.11 and I have a very similar experience with her. We are on day 5 of PT attempt no 3 or 4, and day 5 is furthest we have got! On day 1 she held it in for 10.5 hours!! No accidents at all. I finally put a nappy on her as she became completely unreasonable, was in pain and refused to sit on the potty.

When we tried at 2.7 and 2.9 yrs we had the similar things happen - she can basically hold it in like a trooper but will never wee anywhere but a nappy. On the potty she would tell me 'wee is stuck'. We abandoned previous PT attempts on the basis I decided she wasn't ready but now feel I need to help her get over her fear, as all her friends are trained and even peer pressure isn't encouraging her, I can't see her ever deciding to go out of nappies without some persuasion. I know she is physically capable as she is able to hold it in, and wee almost immediately as a nappy goes on, its just helping her to feel comfortable weeing somewhere else but a nappy.

At the moment I am encouraging her to do wees whilst sat on the potty but with a nappy on. This is at least getting her used to sitting down. My next step is going to be to just have the nappy in the potty but not done up (she seems to feel a lot of security from having the nappy right against her) then hopefully progressing to removing the nappy.

Hello. My DD is 2.11 and I am terrified she will never potty train. We did cold turkey at 2.6 and again at 2.9. She will happily try on the potty or loo but never does anything. Always each wee is an accident. She can hold on for hours. Just wanted to join in the tread, pick up any tips. No advice but feel less terrified of been labelled a shit mum if others have the same challenge. It's keeping me awake!

Hi Katie, we are now a week and a half in! Things are going well in that DD can wear knickers all day now and no accidents since day 2. However every wee she does at the moment is into a nappy while sitting on the potty. She feels most comfortable if the nappy is done up, so I am offering a small reward for doing a wee with the nappy not done up but simply placed in the potty. She's managed this a handful of times, and tried it quite a lot, but it doesn't always come out. I think the problem is just feeling the security of the nappy helps her to relax and let the wee out. Cold turkey was too stressful for us (me!) and I have found this gently gently method is better for us. I feel that she is trained in the sense that she can hold on and let it out at will. However we need to work a lot on weeing without a nappy there. She's gained a lot of confidence over the last week - on day 1 she tantrummed for half an hour for her nappy back, now she is very happy to wear knickers. We will get there in the end. Good luck!

Remember for over 2 years we have trained them to only wee in a nappy, and I think for some children, weeing somewhere else is really scary. For other children it seems to be an easy transition, but don't blame yourself if your child isn't like that! DD is the last of her friends to train, so I understand about feeling the pressure.

DD was exactly the same - I posted about it last year. She would hold on all day and then soak through her nappy at night, she just couldn't relax. The turning point for us was letting her choose a ridiculous princess potty-throne thing (which she still prefers to use instead of the normal toilet, sigh). And a very attractive chocolate reward for going on the potty, which she also chose.
I tried all sorts to get her to relax and let go, and sat her on it for ages watching TV, but in the end what worked best was just leaving her posh new potty in the corner of the room and not mentioning it at all.
The good thing was, once she had actually done a couple of wees on the potty she got the hang of it all straight away, and was completely dry. Good luck, hang in there!

Thank you IslaandIsla and Cinnamon. I'm trying not to panic!!! I appreciate your advice and support.

Fossil - how are things going?